Jim's Column 20.3.2021

 Coventry City's defeat at Luton on Tuesday evening saw the Sky Blues punished yet again for indiscipline. Whilst many believe that Kyle McFadzean didn't handle the ball on the goal-line three minutes before half-time, the referee sent off the defender and awarded the home side a penalty from which they duly scored.

Kyle became the 150th City player to be sent off since World War Two and joined an elite group of players to receive a red card three times. He received his marching orders at Rotherham last season and earlier this season for two yellow cards at Reading.

The previous members of the 'Three Red Cards' club are:

Dion Dublin, Paul Williams, David Thompson, Youssef Safri, Michael Doyle and Carl Baker.

'Fadz's' red card was the sixth for a Coventry player this campaign (five in the league, 1 in the League Cup) and we are now one card shy of the club record of seven in a season. The current record was set in the first two seasons after relegation from the Premiership (2001-02 and 2002-03) both saw seven red cards (all in the league).

The culprits back then were:

2001-02: Lee Hughes (2), Youssef Safri (2), David Thompson, Marc Edworthy and Jay Bothroyd.

2002-03: Calum Davenport, Safri, Craig Hignett, Dean Gordon, Gary Caldwell, Gary McSheffrey and Youssef Chippo.

Penalties conceded-wise we are heading for a new club record. Tuesday night's penalty was the eleventh conceded (10 League, 1 League Cup) and all 11 have been successfully converted by the opposition. The record for spot-kicks conceded in a season is 12 in 2013-14 season in League One and Joe Murphy set a record himself by saving five of them.

One record equalled on Tuesday night was the most penalties converted by the opposition in a season. The 11th, scored by Luton's Elijah Adebayo, matches the 1979-80 season when the Sky Blues conceded 11 and all were successfully converted.

I looked at the effect of those penalties on the final score of the relevant games. In 1979-80 only three results would have changed, a loss at Tottenham would have been a victory and defeats v Man United and Aston Villa would have been draws. The extra four points (there were only two points for a win in those days) would have lifted the team from 15th to 10th in the final table.

This season four league results would have been different if the penalties had not been awarded: two defeats (Watford and Forest) would have been draws, and two draws (Norwich and Birmingham) would have been victories. Theoretically, the penalties conceded made the difference of six points, and without them the team would now be in relative mid-table safety with 44 points. They also wouldn't have been eliminated from the League Cup at Gillingham!

Nigel Vines was in touch this week. His first game was a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Highfield Road. He remembers it was the game in which City's Roy Barry broke his leg. He asked if I could tell him the year. It was March 1970 and happened early in the game when Roy made a somewhat reckless challenge with Wednesday's Tommy Craig and came off worst. Many fans heard the crack of the bone and knew immediately it was serious. Referee Clive Thomas booked Roy as he was being put on a stretcher to leave the pitch. Roy had only joined the Sky Blues from Dunfermline in the previous October and had had a massive effect on City's form – they lost only three league games that he started before his tragic injury. After the Wednesday game City's route to European qualification wasn't affected and they achieved the club's highest ever finish, sixth. Roy's recovery was long and hard and he didn't play first team football again until the final game of the following season missing the European campaign that he had helped achieve.

             Roy Barry stretchered off in March 1970 after breaking his leg

Nigel also pointed out that in my piece last week about City games where they finished with nine or ten men I didn't mention the 3-3 draw with Portsmouth last year at Fratton Park after being reduced to 9 men. Apologies for that omission.

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's column 10.4.2016

Martyn Harris emailed me recently. He and his wife left Coventry over 40 years ago and now live in Cheshire. They have always followed the Sky Blues progress. Recently they we were reminiscing about games watched, and remembered the game when there as a horrible incident where City captain Roy Barry broke his leg. Could I tell him when this happened and who were City's opponents..

The incident happened at a home game with Sheffield Wednesday on 14^th March 1970. With twelve minutes gone, City trailed 1-0 to a Jack Whitham goal. Barry and Wednesday's Tommy Craig went for a 50-50 ball in midfield and Roy came off worst, suffering a broken leg. It was immediately clear that he was seriously injured and he left the field on a stretcher as referee Clive Thomas booked the prostrate defender. The injury visibly affected the whole team – they had lost their inspirational leader – and although Jeff Blockley headed an equaliser before half-time the team looked a shadow of the side that had deservedly been in the top six for most of the season.

                                                                  Roy Barry

Few players in City’s history have had the instant impact that Roy had when Noel Cantwell signed him from Dunfermline for £40,000 in October 1969. Signed as George Curtis’s replacement the Scottish hard man had been one of the driving forces in Dunfermline's success north of the border. In his first appearance, as a substitute at Stamford Bridge he was on the wrong end of hardman Ron Harris' boot and suffered a broken nose. Two weeks later he took over from Curtis and the team won eight of the next ten games and lay fourth in the table, established – for the time being - in the top elite of the First Division. Following Barry's tragic injury the team lost only one of the next eight games, finishing sixth and securing a European place for the following season.

Roy's recovery was long and hard and it was 14 months before he returned to first-team action and he went on to play almost 100 games for the club he was never quite the same player again. He joined Crystal Palace in 1973 and subsequently returned to Scotland with Hibs and East Fife. A brief managerial career took him to Nuneaton and Oxford United where he was caretaker boss when the team came to Coventry for a cup game in 1982. He has been back in Dunfermline for many years but has been a visitor to a number of Legends Days at the Ricoh.

Following my piece on friendlies with Scottish club Morton last week, regular reader Ed Blackaby asked me about a friendly with Rangers in the early 1990s. In July 1991 City travelled to Scotland for a pre-season tour which included a four-team tournament at Kilmarnock FC. City manager Terry Butcher had used his contacts north of the border to get City an invitation to the tournament, held over the weekend of 3^rd and 4^th of August, which included the hosts Kilmarnock, Rangers and Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam. As a warm up for the tournament City, who based themselves in the town of Troon, played a friendly with Ayr United, which they lost 3-1.

The day after the defeat at Ayr there was a major upset in the City camp as three senior players (Lloyd McGrath, Trevor Peake and Kenny Sansom) were disciplined after what was exaggeratedly described as a 'drinking spree' in a team's hotel. All three were sent home and fined and club captain Peake was sold to Luton two weeks later.

City's shell-shocked team gave a good account of themselves on Day 1 of the contest, drawing 1-1 with Rangers but losing 4-3 on penalties. Substitute Paul Furlong looked to have won the tie with an 83^rd minute goal but John Spencer grabbed a last minute equaliser before Sandy Robertson (later signed by City) missed an injury-time penalty. The following day Killie and Rangers fought out the final, Rangers emerging winners, whilst City lost 2-1 to Sparta in the 3^rd place play-off.

City's team against Rangers was:

Ogrizovic: Borrows, Edwards, Robson, Pearce, Billing, Woods, Gynn, Drinkell (sub Furlong), Gallacher, Smith.

In the Sparta game Butcher gave starts to other members of the squad, Martyn Booty, David Titterton, Dean Emerson and Robert Rosario whilst the small band of City fans had one of the earliest glimpses of a young Zimbabwean striker called Peter Ndlovu, who came on as a substitute.